UXO contamination at former and current Department of Defense (DOD) sites is an extensive problem. Site characterization and remediation activities conducted with the current state-of-the-art technologies at these sites often yield unsatisfactory results and are extremely expensive to implement. This is due in part to the inability of current technology to distinguish between UXO and nonhazardous items.
Present systems that are commercially available include the Geonics EM61-MK2, which although field-tested over many years only provides detection, not classification of UXO. The system also has undesirably large sensor dimensions, and suffers from signal response drift due to its analog electronic design. Another system is the Geometries MetalMapper, which is used in a vehicle-mounted configuration due to its large size and weight. In survey mode, it can only provide detection because the single transmitter only allows for the collection of a limited data set. In cued, or static mode, UXO classification is possible.